It appears the National Police Agency is serious about cracking down on organized crime. The annual White Paper on Crime, published this year on July 24, created its first separate section on organized crime since 2008 — the same year law enforcement officials acknowledged ...

The leader of the Kudo-kai major crime syndicate was served a fresh arrest warrant Tuesday for allegedly hiding hundreds of millions of yen collected from members affiliated with the group and evading income tax, police said. It marks the first time the police have ...

The leader of a major crime syndicate is under arrest on suspicion of entertaining voters in connection with the Chiba Prefectural Assembly election, police said. Isao Seki, the 69-year-old chairman of the Sumiyoshi-kai and a resident of Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, and two others allegedly ...

In the early 2000s, when I was writing a book about yakuza movies, veterans of the genre’s 1960s and ’70s heyday I met had a fierce pride in their work but no illusions about its low ranking in the film-world hierarchy. In particular, the ...

The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo should be a cause for celebration but this may depend on who you talk to. Takajima Publishing released a book by Yoshinari Ichinomiya in June 2014 titled “2020 Black Money and the Tokyo Olympics” that portrays the event as ...

“He had connections and interactions with individuals related to the yakuza. Why on earth would he be appointed a (Cabinet) minister? The responsibility of the prime minister for appointing him to this position is tremendously weighty.” These angry words were said by a New ...

The Fukuoka Prefectural Police said the ranks of the Kyushu-area yakuza group Kudo-kai, including members and associate members, have decreased by 80 from a year before to 870 at the end of last year. The police believe the number will decline further due to ...

About 4 percent of all Japanese companies have been targeted by unreasonable demands made by yakuza and other antisocial groups over the past five years, a survey carried out in conjunction with the National Police Agency said Thursday. That’s down sharply from the 12 ...